Maine GOP warns of potential voter fraud

The Maine GOP urged voters to get out to the polls early on Tuesday to prevent possible voter fraud.

Maine GOP executive director Jason Savage said in a statement there was "chatter related to Maine's lack of voter identification laws and the ability of any person to impersonate a voter who has yet to cast their ballot."

Savage praised the election officials, but called any potential voter fraud, even unfounded claims, on the eve of an election, "unsettling."

“We have people – up and down – on both sides that really care about the integrity of the elections, so anything that seems out of place is unsettling and unfortunate," said Savage.

Savage said he could not release exactly what the tip or information was that the GOP received, but that they are still investigating and gathering further information before presenting it to the Secretary of State.

“We want to make sure that we do all of our due diligence before we get into passing along that information, but on the eve of the election, there’s no time to wait to notify voters to be aware of it," said Savage.

Maine Democrats called the warning a "scare tactic."

“The very idea that the only way you can turn out your voters is by threatening them with voter fraud – it’s absurd. I also think it suggests that the GOP, if they are elected into majority in the House and Senate, are going to work to make voting more difficult, to pass more onerous voting laws," said Phil Bartlett, chairman of the Maine Democrats. “We’re confident that we can go talk to voters – encourage them to vote because they want to be a part of it, not because of some ridiculous allegation of voter fraud.”